Imagine a world where it takes just one second to download a terabyte of data. Well, thanks to Intel, this possibility might seem nearer than you think.

Years of research in silicon photonics have produced the 50G Silicon Photonics Link. The technology uses a combination of lasers and chips to convert data into light signals, send them up a fiber optic cable, then convert the light signals back into its original data form.

The accuracy is also superb: Intel claims that over 27 hours, one petabyte of data was transferred with zero error.Silicon photonics is the study and application of photonic systems which use silicon as an optical medium. Intel’s Silicon Photonics Link prototype is the world’s first silicon-based optical data connection with integrated lasers.